The idea has been popularized and since bastardized by Sin City. "What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas." I happen to dislike the way the slogan has been colloquialized and is now used so freely, but I love what it stands for. It stands for the idea that there are people you can trust. The travel ads suggest that there is an entire desert destination full of people you can trust not to divulge your secrets. This example is extreme because they won't tell on you because you won't tell on them. Not all silence is bred from mutual wrong-doing, but it is that bond, that "Brotherhood," that has gone unsaid in practically every level of social interaction since the dawn of time; it did not originate with nefarious relationships and scandalous nights out in Las Vegas.

While many groups still live or die (sometimes literally) by the concept today, one area where it seems to have eroded most is professional sports. There are stories over the past few years from all sports, but I'm most concerned with Major League Baseball.

All it took was a few bad apples -- all of which apparently had too much free time -- and a market hungry for the information. Steroid use is the easy target for inquiry, but the worst and most addictive drug in sports today is the all-mighty dollar. That is what has enabled whistleblowers to get their 15 minutes of fame. There was a time that "What happened in Major League Baseball, stayed in Major League Baseball." I do not believe for one second that it wasn't until recently that professional athletes began to pray to chemical gods for abilities the spiritual gods did not give them.

August 7, 2007 will forever be the day that Barry Bonds hit his 756th homerun. There is an endless supply of sports writers and fans who want exercise their (self-given) right to play judge, jury and executioner by way of punctuation. (The asterisk (*) has become the most powerful character a keyboard can produce.) They want the record for most career homeruns, which is now held by Barry Bonds, to be flagged. They want sports almanacs to not only include, but emphasize that Barry Bonds has used steroids.

Most Career HR

Barry Bonds CHEATER

756*

Hank Aaron

755

...

*USED STEROIDS

I do not condone the actions of anyone who chooses to use performance-enhancing drugs. I do, however, understand that as the world becomes more and more competitive, people are increasingly driven to find an advantage -- wherever they can. But fierce competition is not new. If you want Barry Bonds forever chastized in the record books, please be absolutely sure that no one else broke any rules. And that is where I am conflicted.

What needs to happen -- and I believe that it needs to happen -- is for someone to step forward. If players before Barry Bonds used steroids (or any other drugs), someone please say so. But that would mean going against the Brotherhood, which still has more meaning (apparently) to older generations.

I cannot ask someone to break their silence because it would defeat what I believe in, but without involving names I want evidence to be discovered that will say definitively that players from Hank Aaron's era did not have the squeaky-clean reputation that they are purported to have. The irony is that the situation is so out of control that, even if it takes a large sum of money, I welcome (to an extent) a whistleblower from a generation ago.

I don't think Barry Bonds should be off the proverbial hook. I just think he is one bad guy in a profession notorious for -- and eerily quiet about -- its tradition of bad guys. I think America has produced generation after generation of wide-eyed little boys. The country is run by men who still remember going to their first ballgame and their baseball-playing heroes are still as infallible to them today as they were then. To think that something has happened to cast doubt on that idolization is catastrophic and people are angry with Barry Bonds for challenging their heroes' virtue. Ignorance is bliss.

We would love to let what happened in Vegas stay there, but what has happened recently in Major League Baseball is now public knowledge, and someone has decided that a player needs to answer for it. Sorry Barry.

This entry was posted on Aug 08 2007 at 13:23 by admin and is filed under Sports.

2 comments

I thought the slogan meant something entirely different.
I thought it meant nobody in Vegas will remember for long what you have done and neither will you, so no harm done.
I thought it meant Vegas is some sort of Bermuda triangle of sin, and that everyone was ok with it.

In a way, the same Bermuda triangle concept applies to Mr. Bonds: If enough people are ok with you doing something wrong to achieve “greatness", then you should be considered great.
Otherwise they should stop the wrong thing from ever starting, instead of criticizing when you achieve something.
In other words, nobody should give you the best of the best in Vegas and at the same time expect you’ll keep your panties on.